The Handwritten Newspapers Project

Publication History:

Place of Publication:  NE Arkansas, Sharp County, AR

Frequency: Weekly

Volume and Issue Data:  January 18, 1972 through August 9, 1974 (holdings).  Paper ceased in 1978.

Size and Format: 8 1/2 x 11, typed text with handwritten headlines and hand-drawn graphics, mimeographed, issues run up to 8 pages.

Editor/Publisher:  “a character” :  Joseph H. Weston, editor and publisher

Title Changes and Continuation:  None

General Description and Notes:

This was a community paper with a partisan political edge. Text of the paper is typed, and all headlines, sub-heads, graphics, and ads are handwritten and or/hand drawn.  The first issue claims the paper is “Sharp County’s only metropolitan newspaper–professional journalism with conscience and vision” (Vol. 1, No. 3, Feb. 1, 1972, adds “with conscience, courage, vision!”). With headlines such as “Is Judge Ransom C. Jones Operating His city Court In Cave City as a Racket Under Order from Elvis” and “Rat Poison Deliberately Fed into Public Drinking Water for More Than a Quarter of a Century,” it is not hard to imagine that the editor invited libel lawsuits.  The March 28, 1973 edition (Vol. 2, No. 13) includes “An Appeal for Help” (p. 3) because, as the editor writes, members of the Sharp County political establishment “induced my next door neighbor, to swear out a warrant for my arrest on the antique charge of ‘criminal libel’ for publishing an article in which I attacked our corrupt County Judge Lester Anderson and his crony and gravel contractor, Dickey, with equal vigor. The charge is preposterous, and the law is ridiculous.”

Information Sources:

Bibliography: None

Locations:  Arkansas Historical Commission, Little Rock, AR (collection only has the 1972-74 issues)